I'm a journalism student at the University of Central Lancashire. Contact me on ryanwood44@hotmail.com

Thursday, 18 March 2010

The Rise of African Football?

I'm not personally a fan of African football as i find that many of the international teams rely on just a few players of worldwide recognition to get the result.

Also, it seems like the 'big' African countries don't seem to put in the effort against the 'lesser' ones resulting in teams like Egypt not reaching the World Cup Finals.

However, after constant bombardment of information by a close friend, i have had to learn to take African football more seriously.

The African Cup of Nations threw up some entertaining games with the opening match coughing up eight goals in a memorable comeback which ended 4-4.

With dwindling crowds, the players showed the commitment and stamina for which African football is well-known and a strong Egyptian side came out on top with Zidan impressing.

As for the World Cup, i am still unsure of whether the African sides can out-perform some of the top World teams, but Senegal and Ghana has proved that is is possible in recent competitions, so we will have to wait and see on that one.

Although individual African teams may struggle, its fair to say that an African XI would be good enough to challenge any team the rest of the world could put together with the likes of Drogba, Adebayor and Eto'o leading the line...

The future is bright for African football with many of its young talents still yet to peak and with up and coming countries, who are ploughing more money into football and the community around it.